Okay so I have never been much as far as aiming at Catfish, with the exception of Petenwell when they follow up the walleye run, and before wife got ill I was even considering a trip with BrianK.
With that said I have to say catching 3-9 Lb cats was just unconscious Friday…. I had two younger guys standing there 10-15 feet away dropping their jaw everytime they saw the main hook right in the mouth.. snagged 2 in 1.5 hours.
So here’s the whole story, Friday nearly every fish bit the main hook… Saturday we had to catch about 30 to get 7 inside the mouth… not one single fish gut hooked most that went back were just outside the mouth …. by the way a lot of folks still use the hook “ANYWHERE” from the gills forward as legal in WI. , but the Wisconsin law says inside the mouth.
So here’s what and how the cats were caught. While guide customers were set in holes fishing I would go searching, back and forth across the channel until I found large quantities of fish bumping my jig, ( a Nilsmaster white and chart glow). You absolutely could not set the hook when you felt the bump… it was just a bump not a bite and that’s why some more fish were snagged Saturday… it is hard to explain it to someone until they feel it.
When the cats bit they just stop the jig as it falls through the bottom foot or so of water and slack right back at you right away.. it was almost always the same … we tried to always keep the jig in lowest 18 inches so it was easy to tell when all of a sudden you didn’t make it back to the bottom. Then you really didn’t set the hook, but just lifted until you had the weight and started reeling. So what I’m saying is anybody that searched to find them could catch them… they hooked themselves
Sadly about 5 of us regulars agreed Saturday night it would be our last trip across the ice… guide customers and I actually moved back to east side in the middle of the day as ice conditions got worse quickly… yah there are tons of spots out there that still have 9-12 inces, but 2-3 inces is everywhere and that was Saturday.
